All posts for the month November, 2014

Find the closest museum to you and make a day of it. find something there that inspires you. This will vary a lot from person to person and museum to museum. Some of you will be closer to a museum of history, some of you will be close to a science museum, and some of you will be close to a museum of art. If there aren’t any museums close to you or they are outside of your price range consider checking online for virtual museum tours. Write about whatever inspires you most at the museum.

Today I’m asking you to pull a Shakespeare and write a sonnet. There are three key ingredients that make up a sonnet: the rhyme scheme, the syllable count, and the iambic pentameter. There are three different rhyme schemes for you to choose from but other than that there isn’t much variation in the form. I’ll list the three patterns below for anyone that is unfamiliar. (The “-” separates line to line and the “/” separates stanzas.)

Sliver of Stone is currently accepting poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual artwork. Submit up to three poems or 3,500 words per prose entry. Their deadline for consideration is January 15, 2015. For further instructions on how to submit check out their site: http://sliverofstonemagazine.com/submit/

Sugared water is seeking submissions for its issue #004. They are an independent lit mag run out of Cincinnati, OH. “We read poetry & prose, with a particular interest in flash and micro forms, lyric and personal essays, prose poetry, free verse poetry, and individual, strong senses of voice and place. We will consider three to five poems or up to 4,500 words in fiction of creative nonfiction.” For full guidelines on how to submit visit their site: http://sugaredwatermagazine.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines/

There is a free e-book called Writers Unite that is the collaborative effort of over 200 Tumblr writers. The book is full of writing advice, inspiration, and motivation. Apparently all the collection started from all of these Tumblr writers answering the question: “What is the one piece of advice you wish you would’ve known when you first got started writing?” To get the free download and find out what your fellow writers are trying to do to help you check out this site: https://gumroad.com/l/ZJcz/free

Happy Black Friday! To celebrate all the great deals you’ll be getting, write a poem about your feelings toward shopping. For some of us this will be a very emotional poem. If you’re a shopoholic like me than you probably like enjoy shopping more than you enjoy spending time with some people. What does it feel like to walk out of the store with that brand new outfit, gadget, or book?

A good friend of mine recommended this web series to me called Carmilla. I’m only three episodes in but I think I’ll stick with it. The series is based of a novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu and is set up so that it is completely filmed at a webcam. Overall it seems like a pretty cool project. The episodes are between two to eight minutes and there are only about thirty of them so far so it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up. Used this webseries as inspiration and write a story that is based off something of another genre. Find a web series or something that you enjoy and make it your own.

Write a poem about the Thanksgiving holiday. Do you enjoy it? Do you hate it? What motivates those emotions? What are you thankful for? Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions that are unique? Where did your traditions come from? What is your favorite part of the holiday?

I always understood that the phrase “gird your loins” had the connotation to mean prepare for battle. I didn’t every actually know what the action itself looked like. But thanks to far too much time spent on the internet that has changed. I found this informative step by step how-to guide for loin girding. So today write a scene in which the phrase is used or your character performs the actual action. I know that action can probably be hard to work in unless you’ve written a warrior woman that happens to be wearing a dress.

Do you have a favorite food? What is it? Write a love poem to your favorite food. If you don’t have a favorite food but there is something that you are craving write the poem to that food. Last ditch effort for those of you with no favorite and no cravings at the moment, think about what you’ve eaten so far this week. What was the most satisfying food? If you made it yourself maybe the food preparation would be something fun to include in the poem.